Daily Quote 10/20/2006

Mon. 10/16/2006.
"The invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents."

--James Madison (letter to Thomas Jefferson, 17 October 1788); Reference: The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek (475); original The Complete Madison, Padover (253)

Tue. 10/17/2006.
"It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the Delegates from so many different States ... should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to well founded objections."

--George Washington (letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 7 February 1788); Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (383)

Wed. 10/18/2006.
"The great desideratum in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to controul one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controuled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society."

--James Madison (letter to Thomas Jefferson, 24 October 1787); Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (152)

Thu. 10/19/2006.
"The idea of restraining the legislative authority in the means of providing for the national defense is one of those refinements which owe their origin to a zeal for liberty more ardent than enlightened."

--Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 26)

Fri. 10/20/2006.

"That diabolical Hell conceived principle of persecution rages amoung some and to their eternal Infamy the Clergy can furnish their Quota of Imps for such business,"

--James Madison (letter to William Bradford, 24 January 1774); Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (7)